Luther and Lutheranism

Martin Luther was eight years old when Christopher Columbus set sail from Europe and landed in the Western Hemisphere. Luther was a young monk and priest when Michaelangelo was painting the Sistine Chapel in Rome...

ELCA Good Gifts Catalog

Assignment Process

Assignment completes candidacy for all people, including those ordained in another Lutheran church or Christian tradition, moving them toward first call and admittance to the appropriate roster in the ELCA...

Joint Observance

The ELCA Conference of Bishops' Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Liaison Committee and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs Committee commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation by signing a joint statement during a Lutheran-Catholic service of Common Prayer.

Reformation 500

Martin Luther posted his “Ninety-Five Theses” in Wittenberg on Oct. 31, 1517, and the resulting debate about Christian teaching and practice led to changes that have shaped the course of Western Christianity for almost 500 years.

[1]
This is the second edition of Rutledge’s excellent Handbook on Politics and
Religion by Jeffery Haynes. Haynes is
Director of Research at London Metropolitan University in the U.K. The first volume was published after the
events of September 11, 2011, looking at the implications of "religious
terrorism" and "extremism."
Haynes asked some of the original contributors to update their previous
contributions. What results is a very
current and insightful picture of religious political engagement around the
world.

[2]
Hayne's writes, "Today, religion's social and political significance and
influence is universal." (p. xv)
There still is enthusiasm particularly in North America and Europe for
dialogue and collaboration among various faith groups. This is a hopeful development. However, it is easy to be somewhat idealistic
and captive to the theological discussion in the world of multifaith
relationships. This volume provides
helpful analysis about the internal dynamics and tensions shaping religious political
engagement. It also offers a helpful
glimpse of the issues in the background that can influence their interfaith
conversations. It could serve as a
useful tool for greater multifaith political
engagement with public institutions and leaders.

[3]
Haynes organizes the contributions around four general themes; "World
religion and politics," "Religion and governance,"
"Religion and international relations," and "Religion, security,
and development." Haynes makes it
clear that the "starting point" for the analysis by many of the
contributors is "that globalisation both
highlights and boosts religious pluralism; while also encouraging intra-faith
and inter-religious hostility and conflict." (p. xxii) Hayne's objective is that understanding these
dynamics might help enable more collaboration in the pursuit of peace. As globalization seems to be called into
question in Europe and Northern America, such an analysis might also help to
diagnose globalization's failings and shortcomings. Nevertheless, such an
assertion also requires some nuance about the places where this is not the case
and where faith groups have taken the initiative for peace.

[4]
I offer a brief overview with apologies since is hard to really do justice to
the well-articulated arguments of each of the contributors. In the "World religion and
politics" section some very noteworthy scholars offer a fascinating tour
through some of the particular beliefs, of Buddhism, Protestantism, Roman
Catholicism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Shia, and Sunni Islam and Judaism. These all offer some surprising insights
such as Peter Friedlander's assessment of the tension between
"engaged" Buddhism's "peace activism" versus a more
"anti-Muslim Buddhist nationalism." (p.13). Paul Freston's
helpful survey of Protestantism is useful in understanding the rising role of
"evangelicals" and the challenge reconciling its' "institutional
plurality" in a way to have a political impact. (p.32) The chapters on
Sunni Islam, Shiism and Judaism are particularly prescient in the light of
events in the Middle East. Often the
media reports of the events but these three chapters are helpful in
understanding the deeper currents the moving beyond view.

[5]
Part II addresses "Religion and Governance." Luca Ozzano's
helpful overview of "religious fundamentalism" notes that
fundamentalism "is not 'simply' a religious phenomenon: on the contrary,
it is linked to politics and to the search for control and hegemony over
society." Such fundamentalism will
"usually select, reinterpret, and sometimes rewrite their own religious
traditions" to accomplish their goals (p.150). David Herbert provides an interesting
analysis of the relationship between religion and civil society. There has been some debate as to whether
religious organizations are part of or separate from "civil
society." Herbert illustrates some
of the "distrust" as well as "potential for new forms of
political mobilization and confrontation." (p. 227) Jocelyne Cesari's article offers a useful perspective, particularly
in the light of efforts in some jurisdictions to develop laws and charters
securing secularism (e.g. Quebec's Charter of Values debate) and banning
particular religious lifestyle practices (e.g. Burqini). For her, "Securitization and
secularization sheds light on the rise of values centred
liberalism which pitches itself against the recognition of religious and
cultural diversity" mainly as it relates to Muslims. (p. 242.)

[6]
In the "Religion and international relations" section, Luca Mavelli and Erin K. Wilson introduced the idea of "postsecularism" in their contribution that does not
just recognize the "return of religion" to public life but its
transformational implications for a new paradigm. Jonathan Fox and Nukhet A Sandal look at how to integrate religion into
international relations. Christian
realism has made an important contribution to ethics. Fox and Sandal revisit classical realism and
how religion has been one of the "blind spots" for theories
international relations. Nukhet in a subsequent chapter offers an explanation for
this, "The Westphalian system has been primarily secular, so religion has
not attracted much attention." (p.292) David Wessels
in "Religions in a Globalizing World," makes the point that the
"intersection of religion and politics in a globalizing world is the core
of much human activity and a key to understanding global dynamics."
(p.314)

[7]
In the final and shortest section, "Religion, security and
development," Kristin Aune and Line Nyhagen in their contribution, "Religion, Politics,
and Gender" point out that "Gender is at the heart of religion and
politics" yet at the same time marginalized. (p.335) They make the
important feminist point that "politics is not simply about states, governance,
and the electorate, but also about communities, civil society groups, families
and intimate aspects of individuals' 'lived citizenship.'"(p. 335) Jeffery
Haynes looks at "Faith-Based Organizations and Development" (FBOs)
Martin Juergensmeyer discusses "Religious
terrorism in global politics" and Paul Ilo
explores "The rise of religious peacebuilding."

[8]
Jeffrey Haynes has pulled together a remarkable group of scholars to introduce
the reader to the how religious communities actually have been involved in the
political life of their parts of the world.
It is a very rich and fulsome treatment of a crucial area of statecraft
and massive body experience. To tackle,
any one of these areas could involve volumes. I applaud their
accomplishment. It is a highly
informative and useful primer for anyone interested or working in multifaith relations or public policy. Likewise, it provides cautionary tales for
those who "don't know what they don't know," to paraphrase former
U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

[9]
In the light of my overall favorable view, I think one has to read this volume
recognizing some of the limitations.
First, I was intrigued but not surprised that a 2016 second edition was
needed so soon after the first from 2009.
Ironically the third edition may be needed even sooner after the events
of 2016. Trumpism,
Brexit and the growing resistance to globalization in the Global North will
have an impact on the analysis.
Globalization in the Global South has always received more critical
popular reviews. The authours
do identify many of the seeds of these changes.
Nevertheless, no longer can we assume globalization as an inevitable,
desirable or even the same in various parts of the world. This doesn't detract from what is included in
this volume. It may in fact be even more
relevant to determining the role of faith-based communities and
organizations. But it does qualify some
of the observations by the authours.

[10]
Second, the focus of this Handbook is to "religion" not necessarily
theology. There are references to the
systems of beliefs and ethics that are useful.
However, religion as a field seeks to describe the reality from a
particular perspective whereas theology asks what does this mean and
theological ethics asks what should we do?
Readers will be disappointed if they are looking for a theological
treatment here. This volume does provide
important insights that can inform theology and theological ethics.

[11]
Third, the authours do a commendable job in grounding
their work in the various contexts they address. This is not an easy task. However, having worked in multifaith
and social justice faith-based organizations, this academic treatment misses
some an "activist" perspective.
I am not suggesting that scholars have to be activists, but there is a
limitation to their work. I attended a
conference on religion and peacemaking not long ago. There was a lovely panel of excellent
scholars. They had interesting
presentations about what faith groups could do but they failed to mention what
churches and faith groups had actually been doing for some time.

[12]
This volume has the same limitation.
Churches in particular established some of the earliest non-governmental
organizations and social service agencies.
Churches have been well known for their work with refugees. Churches were the earliest critics and have
challenged globalization policies effectively for thirty years. The Churches' Jubilee Campaign for example,
made international debt a priority issue for the G-8, according to former Canadian
Prime Minister Paul Martin. I could
offer more examples. Brian Stewart,
former Canadian Broadcast Corporation’s Senior Correspondent and now a Senior
Fellow at the Munk School of Foreign Affairs in
Toronto, has said that as one of the first to arrive in some very conflicted
places to cover a story, he often found the churches were already there before
anyone else. I think the same might be
also true for other faith traditions as well.
One should read this volume recognizing there is more to this story.

[13]
Haynes has made a very important contribution to the question of faith in
public life. This has been a "blind
spot" and probably remains so for many people today particularly in the
academy, public life, business and the media.
José Casanova pointed out in 1994 "Religion in the 1980s 'went
public' in a dual sense. It entered the 'public sphere' and gained, thereby,
'publicity." (Public Religions in the Modern World, 3). Many in the "chattering class" in
the Global North missed or chose to overlook the role of faith and religious
communities in public life and international affairs. Haynes offers a useful way back to exploring
both the positive as well as the concerns for the impact of faith in public
life.

David Pfrimmer
is Professor of Applied Christian Ethics and Co-Director of the Centre for
Public Ethics at Warello Lutheran Seminary/Wilfrid
Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontorio, Canada.

Articles published in the journal reflect the perspectives and thoughts of their authors and not necessarily the theological, ethical, or social stances of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.​

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